MetLink Activity 9

Making use of Webcam Images

It is suggested this activity could be used or adapted for use by pupils in the 7 to 11 age range (National Curriculum for England and Wales Key Stage 2).

The aims of this activity are:
+ to develop an awareness of where places are in the world.
+ to use ICT skills in finding information about the weather of different places.
+ to describe weather conditions from images and from data
+ to realise how weather varies around the world.
+ to consider the effect the weather will have on people’s activities.
+ to work together and co-operate in teams.

The Weather on Webcams:
There is a very large number of webcams around the world which show all sorts of scenes from very many different places. Many of them are constantly feeding live images to the Internet and so they provide a very good way of seeing what the weather is doing in any location that has a webcam.

Where is the nearest Webcam to your school or college? You can find this out by going to the MetLink Home page
1.Click on Participants.
2.Point your mouse arrow to the word Names and when the arrow turns into a pointing hand, double click. This will arrange the names of all of the MetLink participants into alphabetical order.
3.Scroll down the list until you find the name of your school or college.
4.Click on the CAMsymbol and the image from your nearest available webcam will appear.
5.The name of the webcam’s location may be shown on the image. Or you may need to look at the web address at the top of your screen to find out. Sometimes, unfortunately, no place name appears.

Next you can look at webcam images saved on MetLink on Tuesday 31 January.
Click on each of these direct links to webcam pictures:
Middlesbrough in England
Barcelona in Spain
Berlin in Germany
Bornholm in Denmark (southern Baltic Sea)
Genoa in Italy
Ibiza, part of Spain
Rijeka in Croatia
Stintino in Sardinia
Utsjoki in Finland
Zakynthos in Greece
Marsala in Sicily, Italy
Jerewan in Armenia
Cairo in Egypt
Sagres in Portugal
Foxtrap in Newfoundland, Canada
Cape Town in South Africa
You can see the time of the image somewhere on or around the picture.

Or you can choose to look at the live images on MetLink by clicking on these links:
Places in Africa
Places in Asia
Places in Europe
Places in North America
Places in South America
Places in the UK
Remember that these are live images so you will need to note their times, such as “This image was of Florida at 08:02 EST”.
The time and date will be shown somewhere on each image.

Task 1: Think of as many words as you can to describe what the weather looks like in each image.

Task 2: If you are using the live images, you can try to find out more about the weather that each place has been experiencing in the past hour or so.
Firstly find out the name of the country for the place whose image you have been describing. Use an atlas or Encarta if you have this available on your computer.
Next, go to the following weather information website:
www.wunderground.com

Type in the name of the place in the search box at the top of the welcome page. This may take you straight to the page for the place you are trying to find out about. If there is more than one place with that name in the world, you will be given a list to choose from, and that is when you need to know the name of the country the place is in. Click on that one and it will take you to the information page.
Important note: Not all of the places with webcams are listed on the www.wunderground data base, or they are listed but there are no up-to-date details for them. If that happens, you will have to move on to another place.
Write down the time the weather observations were made and note the important details about the weather of that place. Your teacher will tell you which details you need to note down.
How does your description from the webcam image match up with the weather details you have noted down?
How is the weather likely to affect the lives of the people who live in the place? Would it be a good place to go to on holiday at this time of year, and why?

Further activities:
You may be able to print a copy of the webcam image. If not, it might be possible to draw a coloured picture of the image.
Next to your image or drawing, write your description of the weather and the details you found out from the wunderground database. Also write down what you decided about how the weather affects people’s lives there and whether it would be a good place for a holiday at this time of year.
If you are working in a group, you might make a display, arranging your pictures and descriptions around a map which shows where the places are.
As a group or a class you could then talk about how weather is different around the world, as shown by your work.